LAW

[Richard Cobden, Radical Liberal politician and Anti-Corn Law League leader.] Autograph List of petitions to the House of Commons, headed ‘Pet[itio]ns Mr Cobden’ [for James Johnstone or Robert Knox?].

Author: 
Richard Cobden (1804-1865), Radical Liberal politician and leading figure in the Anti-Corn Law League [James Johnstone (1815-1878), newspaper proprietor; Robert Knox, editor of the Morning Herald]
Publication details: 
No date, but with newspaper cutting from the Morning Herald, London, 18 February 1854.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item was enclosed in a letter from Serjeant Shee (the future Sir William Shee), offered separately, sent from the House of Commons on 17 February 1854, in which he writes: ‘I enclose Mr. Cobdens own handwriting to send to the Papers -’. Attached to a corner at the head of the first page of the present item is a cutting from the Morning Herald newspaper, 18 February 1854, reproducing the details in the manuscript.

[Richard Cobden, Radical Liberal politician who led the fight to abolish the Corn Laws.] Autograph Note Signed to 'Jas Thomson Esq', with biographical note about the recipient in a contemporary hand.

Author: 
Richard Cobden (1804-1865), English Radical Liberal politician and author, a leading figure in the fight to abolish the Corn Laws
Publication details: 
8 February 1848; London.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In fair condition, aged and worn, with slight loss to two of the corners, and a trace of paper from the mount adhering on the reverse. Addressed to 'Jas Thomson Esq'. Reads: 'Dear Sir / I have forwarded your list of names to the Land Tax Office / & remain Dear Sir / faithfully Yours / Richd Cobden'. Pencil note, in a contemporary hand, at the foot of the letter: 'The Great Anti Corn Law man. / Mr. Thompson [sic] to whom it was written was proposed by Cobden & seconded by Bright, of the Free Trade Club. A Club in St. James Square, London, of 400 or 500 members.

[Richard Cobden, Radical Liberal politician who led the fight to abolish the Corn Laws.] Three Autograph Items, including part of draft manuscript of account of his 1837 meeting in Egypt with Mehmet Ali.

Author: 
Richard Cobden (1804-1865), English Radical Liberal politician and author, a leading figure in the fight to abolish the Corn Laws [Mehmet Ali [Muhammad Ali] (1769-1849), Ottoman governor of Egypt]
Publication details: 
The draft of the meeting with Mehmet Ali after his return from his travels in April 1837, and published in November of that year. One of the other items dated 18 April 1841, from 103 Westbourne Terrace [London]. Another from Midhurst, 20 June 1856.
£280.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. ONE: Autograph draft of conclusion of description of his meeting with Mehmet Ali (‘Mehemet Ali’). The ODNB states that in July 1836 Cobden produced a pamphlet ‘which analysed the Russo-Turkish dispute [...] attempting to play down the Turcophilia that was rife in Britain in the 1830s.

[William Gillespie Dickson, Scottish legal writer and lawyer, Advocate-General of Mauritius.] Autograph Letter Signed to Glasgow Member of Parliament George Anderson, regarding his bill for extending the ‘jurisdiction of Sheriff Courts in Scotland'.

Author: 
William Gillespie Dickson (1823-1876), Scottish legal writer and lawyer, Procureur and Advocate-General of Mauritius [George Anderson (1819-1896), Liberal MP for Glasgow]
Publication details: 
‘Sheriff Chambers / Glasgow 4 March / ’75 [1875]’.
£180.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium. Fifty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times. Minor traces of grey-paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Addressed to ‘George Anderson Esq / M.P. / House of Commons’, and signed ‘W. G. Dickson’. Two annotations in a contemporary hand, one beneath the signature. The first paragraph reads: ‘My dear Sir / I have to thank you for the copy of your bill “to extend the jurisdiction of Sheriff Courts in Scotland,” which I received this morning.

[Sir John Taylor Coleridge, judge and editor of the Quarterly Review.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir John Wither Awdry, asking for clarification. On reverse of part of letter from the Lord Chancellor Lord Cranworth.

Author: 
Sir John Taylor Coleridge (1790-1876), judge and editor of the Quarterly Review [Robert Monsey Rolfe, Lord Cranworth (1790-1868), twice Lord Chancellor; Sir John Wither Awdry (1795-1878), judge]
Publication details: 
'April. 19. 1855 / P[rivy]. C[ouncil].'
£56.00

Coleridge was the nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. See his entry, and that of Cranworth, in the Oxford DNB. The letter relates to Palmerston’s first ministry. 1p, 16mo (cut down to a 12 x 10 cm piece of wove paper). In fair condition, lightly aged and discoloured, with traces of glue from mount adhering to one edge of blank reverse. Signing himself ‘J. T C’, Coleridge writes: ‘My dear Awdry / I have been with the Chancellor in consequence of the above - & promised to send him a minute in writing - where we have had trouble. Can you help me with your recollection. / In haste.

[Lord Moulton [John Fletcher Moulton], mathematician, Liberal politician and Cambridge Apostle.] Autograph Letter Signed, thanking ‘Mrs Earle’ for one of the letters which have 'given me most pleasure in my life’.

Author: 
Lord Moulton [John Fletcher Moulton, Baron Moulton (1844-1921)], mathematician, judge, Liberal politician and Cambridge Apostle
Publication details: 
24 May 1894. Deleted and thus indecipherable ‘S.W.’ London address.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Signed ‘J Fletcher Moulton’. Begins: ‘Dear Mrs Earle / Just at the worst moment of the fight your inspiring letter came to cheer me.’ He hopes he will be deserving of the ‘kind things’ she writes: ‘I could truthfully say things at least as kind in return but I fear my epistolary style does not lend itself thereto so I shall trust that you will take these as said.’ He ends by saying that he will retain the letter ‘as one of those which has [sic] given me most pleasure in my life’.

[The Duke of Devonshire: Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke.] Typed Letter Signed, inviting Sir Courtenay Ilbert to join a 'group of gentlemen' meeting 'to consider the future of the Law School at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield'.

Author: 
Duke of Devonshire: Victor Cavendish (1868-1938), 9th Duke of Devonshire, Governor-General of Canada [Sir Courtenay Ilbert (1841-1924), Clerk of the House of Commons who drafted Indian ‘Ilbert Bill’]
Publication details: 
25 July 1916. On lightly-embossed letterhead of Devonshire House, Piccadilly, W. [London]
£65.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged and discoloured. Folded twice. The salutation ‘Dear Sir Courtenay’ and valediction ‘Yours v. truly / Devonshire’ in his autograph, the rest type. Addressed to ‘Sir Courtenay Ilbert, G.C.B.’ He is ‘hoping to arrange a small and informal gathering to consider the future of the Law School at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield’, and asks Ilbert to join ‘a certain number of gentlemen’ who will be lunching with him at Devonshire House on a named date, ‘With that object in view’.

[Mr. Serjeant Ballantine [William Ballantine, Serjeant-at-Law], lawyer and author.] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed, praising 'a new family paper called The English Resident', with regard to 'English sojourners' in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Author: 
Mr. Serjeant Ballantine [William Ballantine, Serjeant-at-Law] (1812-1887), lawyer and author ['The English Resident', journal; Boulogne-sur-Mer]
Serjeant Ballantine
Publication details: 
'Boulogne s/m June 18 1883'.
£250.00
Serjeant Ballantine

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. On first leaf of bifolium. Forty-three lines of neat text. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with a few small closed tears. The author ('Sir') is unnamed, but is presumably the 'Editor' referred to in the text. Signed 'Wm Ballantine'. By recipient, at head of first page: 'Letter from Mr Sergeant [sic] Ballantine / United Club -'.

[Victorian fraud: Philip Bliss, Registrar of the University of Oxford; William Okill, agent for Thomas Hudson, claimant to the Dukedom of Devonshire.] Unsigned Autograph notes by Bliss, on Autograph Letter Signed to him by Okill.

Author: 
Philip Bliss (1787-1857), Registrar of the University of Oxford and Principal of St Mary Hall, antiquary; William Okill of Liverpool, agent for Thomas Hudson, claimant to the Dukedom of Devonshire
Philip Bliss
Publication details: 
ONE (Okill's ALS): '2 Duke Street / Liverpool 30th. June 1848'. TWO (Bliss's Unsigned Autograph notes): Without date or place.
£200.00
Philip Bliss

This forgotten case of identity fraud predates the celebrated Titchborne case by more than a decade.

[Fitzroy Kelly; attempted murder is as bad as murder] {Part of?] Autograph Letter OR Note Signed with initials (probably a Postscript?) 'FK [FitzRoy Kelly]', later Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, to an unknown correspondent defining murder.

Author: 
Sir Fitzroy Edward Kelly (1796-1880), Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, judge and Conservative politician [Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854), writer, judge and politician]
Publication details: 
No place or date. See Image.
£150.00

One page, 8vo, strip on left edge from origins in an album(?), fair condition, completely legible if hasty. Text: I will let you off now - but you had better let me ask Gunning whether he has further occasion for you.| I think too that an attempt to murder is as bad as murder - But inasmuch as punishment is not to revenge [underlined] but to deter [underlined]; as long as murder is punishable with deat you have all the security that you can have against attempts to murder. | JK.

[Edward Christian, Cambridge law professor, and Philip Manington, Governor of Prince of Wales' Islad (Penang).] Parts of Signed Autograph Documents by the two men, regarding a case of 'combination and confederacy.

Author: 
Edward Christian (1758-1823), Cambridge law professor, elder brother of Fletcher Christian of the Mutiny on the Bounty; Philip Mannington (d.1806), Governor of Prince of Wales' Island (Penang)
Christian
Publication details: 
No date or place. [Late eighteenth century England.]
£250.00
Christian

See Christian's entry in the Oxford DNB. (He was the newly-created Downing Professor of the Laws of England at Cambridge from 1788 to his death.) 1p, landscape 8vo. On one half of a 4to leaf that has been torn in two. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of tape at the right-hand edge, and two punch holes at the left-hand edge of Manington's side. ONE (Christian): Conclusion of autograph draft legal document, numbered '(9)' and signed at bottom left 'Ed. Christian'. With several deletions. Relates to 'Jno Hutchings & Son', who deny 'Combin[ation] & Confederacy &c'.

[Sir Fitzroy Kelly, judge, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Tory politician.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Aspinall’, regarding his secretary taking his chance, and prospects in the legal profession.

Author: 
Sir Fitzroy Kelly (1796-1880), judge, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Tory politician
Publication details: 
1 June 1878; on letterhead of 3 Connaught Place, W. [London]
£80.00

A spirited and characteristically-forceful letter, casting interesting light on the social side of London legal practice in the Victorian period. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 8vo. On Bifolium with thin mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with some nicking and light creasing at edges. Begins: ‘D[ea]r Aspinall, / I suppose from my not having heard from you no one knows of a case in point. So, unless you tell me there is some precedent - of danger, I’ll recommend my secretary to take his chance.

[James Grattan, Irish M.P.] Autograph Letter Signed, almost illegibly, J Grattan to Frederick Page, writer on Poor Law and poverty, and known to visit southern Ireland

Author: 
James Grattan [M.P. Co. Wicklow; see historyofparliamentonline for details].
Publication details: 
22 [Bolton St?]. July 6 182[2?].
£120.00

Two pages, cr. 8vo, bifolium, good condition, a challenging script. I return you many thanks for the 2 pamphlets of yours which I received & should have written to you before now but I only got your letter this day. | I have read them of rather one of them & have derived very useful information from your [work?] as well as the work of others on the subject which I shall certainly bring before the House [of Parliament] in [?] or other Early [?] session. I go to Ireland in a few days, & [???] & pay a visit to that Country in which you take an interest.

[Female suffrage; printed pamphlet.] On the Forfeiture of Property by Married Women. [Reprinted, by kind permission, from the FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW, for the Committee in support of MR. RUSSELL GURNEY'S MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY BILL.] With an Appendix.

Author: 
Arthur Hobhouse, Q.C. [Alexander Ireland, Manchester printer; Rt Hon. Russell Gurney, QC, MP] [women's suffrage; Victorian feminism]
Publication details: 
Manchester: A. Ireland & Co., Printers, Pall Mall. 1870.
£80.00

16pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly-aged, no wraps, disbound. Several copies on COPAC, none of this edition on market currently.

[Lord Mansfield, Scottish jurist whose judgments reformed English law on slavery.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Mansfield') [to the Earl of Liverpool] regarding his recovery from ill health and recuperation at Mount Ephraim.

Author: 
Lord Mansfield [William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705-1793)], distinguished Scottish jurist whose judgments reformed English law on slavery [Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729-1808)]
Publication details: 
'Mount Ephraim [near Tunbridge Wells, Kent] 2d Septr. 1784'.
£220.00

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded once.. A neatly-written letter of fourteen lines. The recipient is not named, but is Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729-1808), whose country seat was Addiscombe Park in Surrey. Mansfield served in the First Pitt Ministry with Liverpool (then Lord Hawkesbury), the former as Lord President of the Council, and the latter as President of the Board of Trade.

['one of the Two Best Read Men in England': Abraham Hayward, author and translator.] Autograph Letter Signed to Lady Theresa Lewis, sending a gift of a ‘rarity’: a book limited to fifty copies.

Author: 
Abraham Hayward (1801-1884), Victorian man of letters and lawyer, whose translation of Goethe’s Faust was praised by Carlyle [Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), author]
Publication details: 
‘Temple May 26’ [no year].
£56.00

See Antony Chessell’s 2009 biography of Hayward (subtitled ‘one of the Two Best Read Men in England’ - the other was Macaulay), along with his entry and Lady Theresa Lewis's in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Dear Lady Theresa’ and signed ‘A Hayward’. He begins by confirming a visit. ‘I sent you a little book to-day which has at least the merit of rarity as only fifty copies have been printed.’

[Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, author, judge and Radical politician.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘T Davis Esq’ regarding the acting of Henry Thomas Betty, son of 'the young Roscius'.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854), author, judge and Radical politician, friend of Charles Dickens and framer of modern British copyright law
Talfourd
Publication details: 
‘Serjeants’ Inn [London], 20 May, 1841’.
£180.00
Talfourd

Talfourd’s entry in the Oxford DNB notes that he was ‘particularly loved’ by Dickens, and that he ‘provided the archetype of the idealistic Tommy Traddles in David Copperfield; his children Frank and Kate gave their names to two youngsters in Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby.’ The subject of the letter is the actor Henry Thomas Betty (1819-1897), son of ‘the young Roscius’ Henry Betty (1791-1874), whose entry in the ODNB also see. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, and with slight traces of mount on reverse. Folded for postage. Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / Mr.

[‘the lover of words (as I am)’: Lord Birkett, judge, British representative at the Nuremberg Trials.] Two Typed Letters Signed, one with long Autograph Postscript, and Typed Note Signed, all to V. H. Collins, defending his use of language.

Author: 
Lord Birkett [William Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett] (1883-1962), judge, a British representative at the Nuremberg Trials, Lord Justice of Appeal, Liberal Member of Parliament [Vere Henry Collins]
Publication details: 
LETTERS: 9 July 1953 and 11 May 1954. NOTE: 14 July 1953. All three items on letterheads of the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2.
£180.00

The third letter gives an excellent indication of Birkett’s pride in his use of language. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), was an author and grammatical stickler. All three signed ‘Norman Birkett’. In fair condition, lightly aged and little grubby. The first letter with a small hole to one corner, and the two leaves of the last letter held together with a pin. ONE: ALS, 9 July 1953. 1pp, 4to. He is adding Collins’s book to his ‘select library on “words”’.

[Lord Robson [William Snowden Robson, Baron Robson], English judge and Liberal MP, Solicitor General and Attorney General.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to 'B Piffard Esq', regarding his possible candidacy in the coming general election.

Author: 
Lord Robson [William Snowden Robson, Baron Robson] (1852-1918), English judge, Liberal MP, Solicitor General and Attorney General [Bernard Piffard (1833-1916), microscopist and entomologist]
Publication details: 
ONE: 26 May 1885. On letterhead of 45, Curzon Street, Mayfair. W. [London] TWO: 15 June 1885. On letterhead of 3, Plowden Buildings, Temple. E.C. [London]
£60.00

Interesting items, casting light on the nitty-gritty of Victorian constituency politics. Both are signed 'W. S. Robson' and addressed to 'B. Piffard Esq'. Both in good condition, lightly aged, with the second a little spotted. Each on a bifolium. ONE (26 May 1885): 3pp, 12mo. He has been informed 'that it is now the wish of the Watford (or Divisional) Association that I should visit the Division & address meetings there.

[Edward William Cox (‘Serjeant Cox’), lawyer and publisher.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Rev P Tuckwell’ (in fact the ‘radical parson’ William Tuckwell), regarding his education at the College School, Taunton, and future plans.

Author: 
Edward William Cox (1809-1879), ‘Serjeant Cox’, lawyer and publisher [William Tuckwell (1829-1919), ‘radical parson’ and headmaster of the College School, Taunton]
Publication details: 
9 February 1865; 1 Essex Court, Temple [London].
£50.00

See the entries for Cox and Tuckwell in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium blind-stamped with the device of the Conservative Club. Addressed to ‘Rev P [sic] Tuckwell / College School / Taunton’, and signed ‘Edwd Wm Cox’. In good condition, on aged paper. Folded twice for postage. He begins: ‘Dr Sir / It gives me very great pleasure to aid the fund of the College School. After its long hybernation 43 years ago, I was the first pupil received on its revival. & within its walls I obtained the larger portion of my education, following the then master, (Rev H Forster) to Oxford.

[Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, Scottish judge and literary critic, editor of the Edinburgh Review.] Autograph Signature on envelope sealed in red wax, and Autograph address to James Gibson Craig.

Author: 
Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850), Lord Jeffrey, Scottish judge and literary critic, editor of the Edinburgh Review [Sir James Gibson Craig (1765-1850), lawyer and politician]
Jeffrey
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£35.00
Jeffrey

See his entry, and Craig’s, in the Oxford DNB. 13 x 9 cm envelope, with seal (no impression of any kind) in red wax over the broken flap. In good condition, lightly aged. On the front of the envelope, in Jeffrey’s hand, ‘To / James Gibson Craig Esqre / 7. North St Andrew Street’. Beneath this, at bottom left and between the customary lines is the signature ‘F. Jeffrey’.

[George Hardinge, judge, poet, author and Member of Parliament.] Autograph Receipt Signed George Harding.

Author: 
George Hardinge (1743-1816) of Pyrton, Wiltshire, English judge, poet, author and Pittite Member of Parliament
Hardinge
Publication details: 
4 May 1792. Place not stated.
£56.00
Hardinge

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. The present item is on one side of a 21 x 8.5 cm piece of wove paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with one fold. Minor traces of two red wafers from previous mounting on blank reverse. Written out by Harding in his attractive hand (he was a stylish fellow: his obituary in the Annual Register stated that ‘no one had a finer choice of words and few a more graceful delivery’), the note reads: ‘Received May 4th.

[Dr Thomas Guthrie, Scottish divine and popular preacher, leader of the temperance and Ragged School movements.] Autograph Letter Signed, acknowledging a 'Kind Gift of £1 to the Original Ragged School'.

Author: 
Thomas Guthrie (1803-1873), Scottish divine and philanthropist, one of the most popular preachers of his day in Scotland, where he was a leader of the temperance and Ragged School movements
Publication details: 
16 February 1872. 28 Westbourne Terrace, London.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded twice for postage. Firmly written in a somewhat florid hand. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / Accept my Grateful thanks for your Kind Gift of £1 to the Original Ragged School & believe me with much respect yours truly / Thomas Guthrie’.

[Prize Ships; Royal Navy: Admiralty; Napoleonic War.] Manuscript Letter from Edmund Hurry & Co to the London marine Charles Cox, offering to ‘take charge of the disposal of the Ships and their Cargoes’ in Gosport.

Author: 
[Prize Ships; Royal Navy; Admiralty; Napoleonic War.] Edmund Hurry [Edmund Cobb Hurry (1762-1808)] of Gosport [Charles Cox and Co., London marine agents]
Publication details: 
‘Gosport May 30th 1803.’
£220.00

An interesting piece of Royal Navy and Napoleonic War ephemera, casting light on the implementation of Admiralty Prize Law. See the reference to the writer of this letter in the 1926 ‘Memorials of the family of Hurry of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and of America, Australia, and South Africa’: ‘Edmund Cobb [Hurry], born at Great Yarmouth, in 1762, admitted a freeman by birthright, 23rd of August, 1782. He settled as a merchant and banker, at Gosport, where he married a Miss Liddell.

[Lord Sankey [John Sankey, 1st Viscount Sankey], judge, Labour politician whose committee drew up the 1940 Sankey Declaration of the Rights of Man.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘[A.G.L.] Rogers’, regarding a 'hostel' and the Bishop of St David's.

Author: 
Lord Sankey [John Sankey, 1st Viscount Sankey (1866-1948)], High Court judge, Labour politician who chaired the committee that drew up the 1940 Sankey Declaration of the Rights of Man [A.G.L. Rogers]
Publication details: 
1 January 1926. On embossed letterhead of the Royal Courts of Justice.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son and editor of the economist Thorold Rogers [James Edwin Thorold Rogers] (1823-1890), for information regarding whom see his entry in the Oxford DNB. A little grubby, but in fair condition, folded once. Good clear signature. Reads: ‘The 1st. of January 1926. / My dear Rogers, / Many thanks for your letter and information re the hostel. I have already brought it before The Bishop of St. David’s and hope that something may result. / With kind regards and best wishes.

[Georgian Northumberland: legal documents.] Two printed lists of justices of the peace, in extracts from the Commission of the Peace for Northurmberland, one of them amended in manuscript; and two lists of grand juries, magistrates and counsel.

Author: 
Georgian Northumberland: Justices of the Peace, 1820 and 1830; Grand Juries, 1834 and 1836 [R. Walker, Printer, Newcastle.]
Publication details: 
The two printed items by R. Walker, Printer, Newcastle, 1820 and 1830. The manuscript lists from 1834 and 1836.
£250.00

ONE: Printed document in the person of King George IV, containing a list of several hundred men appointed as justices of the peace, with extensive manuscript emendations and deletions in red and black ink. (A few names are added, but mostly the names of the dead are struck out.) Dated 16 November [1820] and signed in type ‘BATHURST.’ The first page is headed ‘Extracted from the Commission of the Peace for Northumberland.’ Aged and worn, with closed tear along fold-line of second leaf, the bottom corner of which is torn away, resulting in loss from around sixteen lines of text.

[Lord Devlin, British judge and jurist.] Three Typed Letters Signed to Philip Dosse, publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’, regarding possible reviewers (of his book 'Too Proud to Fight'), and an invitation for him to review.

Author: 
Lord Devlin [Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin] (1905-1992), British judge and jurist [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher ‘Books and Bookmen’]
Publication details: 
27 October and 13 November 1974; both on letterhead of West Wick House, Pewsey, Wilts. 17 January 1975; on letterhead of Casa da Colina, Praia da Luz, Algarve, Portugal.
£180.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The three items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased (the last in particular, being on airmail paper), and folded for postage. All three signed 'Devlin'. ONE: 27 October 1974. 1p, foolscap 8vo.

[Travers Twiss, jurist; Queen's Advocate-General; scandal (Wikipedia)] Autograph Note Signed Travers Twiss to a Mr or Mrs Rowcliffe, promising to send some autographs.

Author: 
[Sir Travers Twiss QC FRS (1809 – 1897) was an English jurist].
Publication details: 
19 Park Lane [London], no date.
£56.00

One page, 12mo, black-bordered, backed by paper of similar size with evidence of having been laid down, and with MS note Dr. Travers Twiss | Vicar [sic] General | &c, good condition. Text: I am much obliged by your note & will take care not to forget my promise - on the first leisure morning I may have - to collect a few autographs & forward them to you. The scandal involved his marriage to a mistress who had been a prostitute [Wikipedia].

[A. V. Dicey (Albert Venn Dicey), distinguished jurist, Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford.] Autograph Signature to Secretarial Letter to Archibald A. Prankerd, regarding a dissertation and Henry Goudy, Regius Professor of Civil Law.

Author: 
A. V. Dicey [Albert Venn Dicey (1835-1922)], distinguished jurist and Liberal Unionist, Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford [Arthur Archibald Prankerd; Henry Goudy]
Publication details: 
19 February 1896. All Souls College, University of Oxford.
£45.00

See Richard A. Cosgrove’s laudatory entry on him in the Oxford DNB, as well as that on Henry Goudy (1848-1921), Regius Professor of Civil Law (like Dicey, of All Souls). The recipient, Archibald Arthur Prankerd (1851-1926), of Worcester College, was also in the law faculty at Oxford. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once for postage. Signed and underlined at foot in pencil ‘A V Dicey’. The letter, in a secretarial hand, reads: ‘Dear Prankerd, / This Dissertation will I think suffice. Please look it through & send it back to Goudy.

[Legal Settlement in Sevenoaks, Kent; 1709/10] Certificate of legal settlement in the Parish of Sevenoaks, Kent. for Edward Kirkin and his wife, Constant.

Author: 
[William Lambard (presumably descendant of the Antiquary); John Amherst (father of the General); Church Wardens; Overseers.
Settlement
Publication details: 
[Sevenoaks, 1709/10]. Printed for R. Vincent, in Clifford's-Inn-Lane, Fleet Street.
£380.00
Settlement

Apparently a rare survival but I'd welcome information. One page, folio, fold marks, foxing, some rough edges, but text clear and complete. Headed by Royal Coat-of-Arms (Dieu et Mon Droit). Signed by Church Wardens and Overseers of the Poor of Sevenoaks (signatures of Thomas Reeeve, John Summers, Rich Phillips), attested by [signatures follow] R. Spilsted and Tho. Richardson. Concluding with the signatures of J[effrey] Amherst (father of the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in the British Army to be) AND W[illiam] Lambard (presumably descendant of the Antiquary). SEE IMAGE for details.

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